Fairly easy really. Room temperature water, warmer part of the year they are kept at room temp, to be honest here in the UK they could probably be kept at room temp all year around and lower. They go below 10 degrees for their hibernation period. I have a heat source that allows them to get up to about 25-26 degrees if they want, however they almost always stay in the cooler areas. Gravid females are more likely to bask where theres more heat, otherwise they like being cool. Average annual temperature is just below 20 degrees for some localities.
Give them a large water area, with branching overhanging. They like to hang out on branches overhanging water or on rocks close to the waters edge, allowing them to flee from predators, which I provide (not the predators of course). Food wise, they're natural diet includes all kinds of invertabrates (cockroaches/worms/katydids/spiders etc), small crustaceans, tadpoles/small frogs, small fish... they'd probably eat anything that they can fit in their mouths. I try to give them a varied diet... cockroachs, crickets, worms, tadpoles when available. Might try some aquatic shrimp at some point.
I'll try and get some soon. They're being kept communually at the moment, I've heard as they get older they can get territorial, but at the moment they are still young, all feeding, all similar weights and sizes and no aggression problems.
I know a lot of people keep them in very aquatic environments, I've chosen a set up with a good sized water and land area. Some individuals spend most their time in the water, others prefer being on branching and one individual prefers to be on the land area most the time. I'm going to be building a new viv soon, drawing from research into the type of vegetation, perch preferences and natural environment to try and create a nice naturalistic planted set up for my living room.
Are yours from a local breeder? I know that a few people are working with them in Britain.
